Oil Steadies Above $50 as Libya Works to Revive Production

West Texas Intermediate futures were little changed after dropping 2.1 percent to a one-week low on Monday. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped 32.83 million barrels a day in September, up 120,000 barrels a day from August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Libyan production is set to recover from a five-month low as the nation’s biggest field restarts following a brief halt.

“With news of Libyan output looking to recover back to the 1 million-barrel-a-day level, oil bulls need to hold out for another bout of news on geopolitics,” said Jens Naervig Pedersen, senior analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen.

West Texas Intermediate for November delivery was at $50.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, 7 cents lower, at 10 a.m. in London. Total volume traded was about 49 percent below the 100-day average. Prices slid $1.09 to $50.58 on Monday after advancing 9.4 percent last month.

Brent for December settlement fell 7 cents to $56.05 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices lost $1.42, or 2.5 percent, to $56.12 on Monday. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $5.22 to December WTI.

Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest producer, boosted production by 60,000 barrels a day to 10.06 million barrels, while Gulf neighbor Kuwait lifted output by 50,000 barrels to 2.76 million barrels a day, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts, oil companies and ship-tracking data.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-02/oil-halts-slide-above-50-before-u-s-report-on-crude-stockpiles